Iranian authorities reported two more deaths from the deadly coronavirus, bringing the country's death toll to eight — the highest such toll outside the disease's epicenter in China.
Speaking Sunday on state TV, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said a total of 15 new confirmed cases had been reported across the country, bringing the overall figure to 43.
Jahanpur gave no details on the new deaths, including when they occurred. But Iranian media earlier cited Abbas Musavi, the head of the Medical Science University in the northern province of Mazandaran, as saying that an unnamed person who had traveled from the capital, Tehran, to the regional capital of Tonekabon had died.
Iran has reported more fatalities from coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, than any other country aside from China. In all, there are 785 suspected cases across Iran, the Health Ministry reported on February 22 — a number that is likely to grow.
Jahanpour earlier was quoted by the dpa news agency as saying that of the newly detected cases, two were in Tehran, and eight were in the city of Qom, 120 kilometers south of Tehran.
Authorities have steadily imposed more restrictions on public spaces and travel in an effort to curtail the disease's spread.
Religious pilgrimages to neighboring Iraq have been suspended, one unnamed official told the semiofficial Fars news agency. The Health Ministry has closed schools and universities in several cities, along with movie theaters. Theater and concert events have been cancelled. Professional soccer games will be played as planned but without spectators.
Minoo Mohraz, a Health Ministry official, said on February 21 that the virus may have spread from Chinese workers working in Qom, where a Chinese company has been building a solar-power plant.
Earlier in the week, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia suspended most flights to Iran.
In China, where the virus emerged, more than 2,300 people have died. Another large cluster has been detected in South Korea, whose president raised the nation's alert to its "highest" level on February 23 after the number of infections nearly tripled over the weekend to 556.
